home sales, consumer confidence and fourth quarter gdp comes out next week. >> ending the week on a high note, gives us a nice impetus and encouragement for next week. felicia taylor, have a great weekend. that will do it for me, i'm fredricka whitfield. see you throughout the weekend. right now time for "the situation room" with wolf blitzer. fred, thanks very much. happening now, the blade runner gets out of jail as the south african magistrate rips the prosecution's case against him. fasten your seat belts for longer lines, big delays it at the airports, all because of washington's gridlock. plus, a fascinating discovery in the war on terror. get this, terrorists have put together a list of ways to avoid becoming the target of a u.s. drone attack. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." .

we begin with yet another sensational turn of events in the oscar pistorius murder case. after a week of shocking and sometimes heartbreaking testimony, pistorius is now out of jail. the one-time olympic athlete who is known worldwide as the blade runner still faces charges of murdering his girlfriend on valentine's day. cnn's robyn curnow is joining us. update our viewers, robin. >> reporter: hi there. thanks for having me. can you believe it, it's only eight days ago that oscar pistorius admitted to shooting his girlfriend on valentine's day. it's been such a roller coaster ride for all of us watching this tragedy, slowly learning about all of these new details and one part of the story which is

certainly not over did come to some conclusion today as os star pistorius walked out of court and is spending the night at a family home. take a look at this. a media frenzy on a road at rush hour. cameras trying to see what's behind the tinted window of the silver land rover, a glimpse of oscar pistorius sitting quietly in the back seat. that over there is oscar pistorius driving to freedom. he's just got bail and he's driving off down this street. in court this morning, the gold medal winner accused of killing his girlfriend was gaunt, motional, with no idea whether he would be granted bail. following final arguments, there was live audio transmission of his ruling, a ruling that detailed the evidence of the case and the history of the laws are relating to it. through almost two hours of presentation, the magistrate criticized the media and chastised the prosecution and picked at the case for defense

for not presenting definitive evidence, not giving any clue which way he would rule until he finally presented enough evidence to grant bail. >> released on bail. >> reporter: a short burst of joy from the courtroom but pistorius was still silent. no reaction, just drained. outside a court that is hanging on each development was generally mixed about pistorius' freedom. >> an innocent woman was murdered. we don't believe bail was sufficient at this time. i think oscar should remain behind bars whether or not it was premeditated. >> reporter: others are sympathetic. >> i'm quite happy that he's been given bail. the nation is already divided and i think that more of the younger generation feel a bit of sympathy towards us and they

feel that he should go to jail, be put to the sword. >> reporter: pistorius is out on jail on $112,000. the conditions including he should give up his passport, report to police twice a week, and he can't drink alcohol, which didn't bother his attorney much after the hearing. >> how concerned are you about the issue of alcohol? how concerned are you? >> he doesn't drink, so that's fine. >> reporter: he's also barred from going to the scene of the crime. as he was driven off this afternoon, he knew he could not go home and would be staying with his family. the family telling cnn they'll be watching him closely during this time. now, this was just a bail hearing filled with emotion, conflict, and overwhelming public interest here, setting the scene for the trial of a revered home country athlete who is charged with the premeditated murder of a young, beautiful model, both with a promising life in front of them. no trial date has been set.

we do know, though, that oscar pistorius' legal team will be going back to that magistrate arguing some conditions of the bail and particularly the issue around alcohol. it's highly unusual here in south africa, nobody is quite sure why that caveat was put in there. that's one issue they will discuss and they are also looking to bring the amount down. beyond that, we will probably see oscar pistorius back for a court appearance in june. then in terms of when an actual trial date will be set, no idea yet. >> his coach has suggested, robyn, that maybe he would even start training, maybe even as early as monday. is that realistic? >> reporter: you know, i hate to give sort of blatant opinion here but i don't think so. i mean, we really have watched oscar pistorius physically sort of shrink in the last seven, eight days. the journalists in the courtroom have been observing how it seems

like his hair is going gray and he's obviously lost a lot of weight. it looks like he's aged ten years. he looks physically weak. he looks physically really fragile and i think this also indicates that he's quite emotionally and psychologically fragile. we get a sense from his family and media reports that they are concerned about his mental state and they are going to keep a very close eye on him. so whether or not he's physically strong enough to go and have a run, that's one thing. but then just remember the sort of press interest. he's going to feel very caged because his every move is going to be followed by, you know, a gang of fophotographers chasing him. i think is a man who is going to want to -- and his family is going to want to protect him and keep him quiet at least for the short time. we talk about oscar and how he is and, you know, we've got to be so careful that we don't get wrapped up in the drama of oscar's story that we don't

forget reeva steenkamp and her family are still struggling, of course, that this is the eighth day that they are going to sleep tonight knowing that she's never, ever going to come back. >> robyn curnow on the scene for us in johannesburg. thank you, robyn. let's move on today to some other news, including new legal troubles for disgraced cycling champion lance armstrong. the justice department has decided to join a whistle blower lawsuit, alleging the government has been the victim of a multimillion dollar fraud because of armstrong's doping. cnn's ed lavandera is joining us with the latest. what's going on, ed? >> well, wolf, this is a serious case against lance armstrong that could, in the end, cost him tens of millions of dollars. but you'll remember it was about a year ago that the justice department gave up on the criminal charges that it was pursing. i spent two years investigating lance armstrong for.

but after his confession to oprah winfrey that he used performance enhancing drugs, the justice department is now joining a whistle blower lawsuit that has been brought forth by one of his former teammates, floyd landis, a fraud lawsuit saying that he defrauded the u.s. postal service while he was winning those tour de france titles. the postal service reportedly paid armstrong and the team $30 million over the course of those sponsorships. so apparently armstrong's lawyers have been negotiating with federal lawyers to come to some sort of settlement but according to a statement that we got a few hours ago from lance's attorney, saying that lance and his representatives worked constructively to resolve this case fairly but those talks failed because we disagree about whether the postal service was damaged. the postal service own study

showed that it benefited tremendously from its sponsorship, benefits totalling more than $100 million. this case will go forward now with the federal government joining in with floyd landis and this is a big monumental moment for lance armstrong's legal troubles. as i mentioned, wolf, this could cost him tens and millions of dollars. >> all right. thanks very much. one quick question before i let you go. is this a lawsuit that the justice department is doing only against lance armstrong or are other people involved? >> well, you know, the actual whistle blower lawsuit is sealed but in the statement that we received from the justice department today saying that they are joining alongside not only lance armstrong but against tailwind sports, the company that owned the cycling team as well as one of the managers. i thought it was kind of interesting. this isn't just essentially turning the screws on lance armstrong but it's also going after people around him which puts a great deal of pressure not only on lance armstrong but on lower profile people that

have been around him for year gls ed lavandera reporting, thank you. today's lead story in 50 states is the nearest highway, sidewalk, and airport is covered in snow. it didn't cause much for a plane landing in cleveland's international airport to slid off the slippery runway. nobody was hurt. buses took the passengers to the terminal. the storm is moving east. our meteorologist car ren maginnis is tracking that. what's going on, karen? >> take a look at what happened in wichita, kansas. this comes from an ireporter. amanda sent this in. she says she heard this terrible war at their office building and all of a sudden boulder size pieces of snow were following on the ground. amanda, that's amazing video. but very dangerous. all right.

we did talk about a storm system that is going to develop off the mid-atlantic coast. that's this area of low pressure. kind of a left over piece of energy that will move over to the atlantic towards new england. for boston, we've been looking at the forecast for quite some time now. we're not sure if it's going to be all rain, all snow, or mixed. it's going to be one of those heavy, wet snowfalls. our different models are saying it could be two to four inches but one of the models that we've seen for boston says you might see four to eight inches of snow. once again, wolf, we'll watch as it impacts the northeast this weekend. >> karen, thank you. still ahead, details of a potential breakthrough in the fight against breast cancer. first, you can blame the political gridlock right here in washington.

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the nation's airports because of forced spending cuts to hit a week from today. cnn's rene marsh has a closer look at what's going on. it could be ugly. >> it could be ugly. today we found out the impact it could have on consumers. $600 million slashed from the faa budget and there's a doom and gloom picture for flyers. a gummed up transportation system could be just weeks away. >> flights to major cities, like new york, chicago, san francisco, and others could experience delays up to 90 minutes. >> it's all part of how the transportation department says they will have to deal with the looming budget cuts. >> to likely close more than 100 air traffic control towers at airports with fewer than 150,000 flight operations per year. >> that means smaller airports across the nation, places like

boca raton, florida, joplin, missouri, will see their air traffic control towers shut down. >> what does this mean for you? if they have fewer people in these towers, they can't keep up with the pace of takeoffs or landings and that may mean fewer flights which could mean higher ticket prices. and that's not all. a representative for the air traffic controller worries about the impact. >> it's hard to see how it's not going time pact safety in terms of the efficiency and safety of the system. so we're very concerned how that's going to play out. >> but the transportation department insists these cuts will not impact safety, after the furloughs kick in around april 1st. well, the government also says they would have to eliminate midnight shifts at towers, too, so lots of goods we depend on like pharmaceuticals, electronics, car parts, those deliveries could be delayed. as for security lines, those will be substantially longer. when i asked if there are any

upsides, one of the representatives did say, look, there does need to be some sort of trimming. we do need to streamline but what we're going to see possibly on march 1st is not the way to do it. >> yeah. there is a smarter way to cut than this way across the board. rene, thanks very much. just this week, the transportation security administration, the tsa, apologized after an agent threatened to do a pat-down search of a 3-year-old girl in the wheelchair. and if the forced spending cuts kick in, checkpoint delays could get even longer. joining us from austin, texas, the administrator of the tsa, john pistol. mr. pistol, thanks very much for coming in. >> sure. glad to be here. >> let's talk a little bit about these forced spending cuts that go into effect one week from today unless there's some last-minute decision by congress and the president to avert that. how will it directly impact tsa

authorities at airports across the country? >>. >> well, obviously we're watching all the discussions about second be questions strags very closely. we're assessing how the impact -- how it would impact us in tsa and we're also doing a lot of planning in case that does happen and then with the issue being how do we implement those cuts at what point, so we're hopeful that sequestration does not happen but if it does, obviously the longer it goes on, the greater likelihood that there will be impacts at security lines and airports around the country. >> explain why that will be the case. will you have to furlough some of your security personnel? >> yes. so as part of the plan, what we've had to do is assess how we will deal with those budget cuts and one of the obvious areas is at some point we would need to

furlough at security check points and checked bags. and so the question is at what point does that impact the traveling public. that's something we're watching very closely. >> right now people get to the airport an hour, hour and a half before their flights. what could happen if these forced spending cuts go into effect as far as tsa security personnel are concerned? >> well, so obviously the longer the sequestration goes on, the greater impact it will have in. in the very short term we have obviously diverted resources and will divert resources from other areas to make sure that the checkpoints and checked baggage areas are staffed fully. the question is, the longer it goes on, at what point do we have to cut back in terms of furloughs and, again, we're hopeful that that is resolved without having to happen. >> how much discretion do you have within the tsa, for

example, to avoid furloughing personnel at airports but cut other places so that the traveling public doesn't feel the pain? >> well, there's obviously some discretion there. the bottom line is we have a certain budget that we have to deal with and, as i said, the longer sequestration goes on, the greater likelihood would be that we have to do just that which will affect security late times. >> what about on security? how at risk would we be? >> well, the security would be the same. it would just take longer for people to get through the security lines because there would be fewer people and obviously the greater impact would be at the largest, busiest airports. >> i want to get your reaction to this widely publicized incident, a 3-year-old girl in a wheelchair with spina bifida. she was stopped with her mother going through security and it's been seen widely on youtube. i think there's been hundreds and thousands of hits. you see this little girl crying.

you've looked into this, i'm sure. what happened? because it causes so much bad publicity for tsa administrators and officials. >> well, let me start by saying that as a father of two daughters, i am empathize with this family and regret and am sorry for the inaccurate information that we provided to that family as they went through the airport security. so given that, we have actually made a number of changes, particularly over the last year, year and a half, to move away from that one size fits all security and actually change the policies for children 12 and under and the elderly 75 and older so situations like this would not occur. so in this instance, after several minutes of having a supervisor come in and what we call a passenger support specialist, a pss, the child was

not given a pat-down. went through the alternate screening that we had for situations like this and they were able to go on their vacation and then return in a timely manner. >> i guess the question is, why every few weeks we see an incident like this? i know it must be very frustrating to you as well. >> yes. so since we've changed the policy, for children 12 and under and also the 75 and older, we've at least anecdotally i've heard fewer and fewer complaints. we do screen, as folks know, a number of people, between 1.7 million people every day, nearly 450 airport. we strive obviously to provide the most effective security but also to do that in the most professional way and usually we hit the mark on that but sometimes we don't and when we make mistakes, we apologize. the federal security director of

st. louis spoke with a father, apologized, and then we tried to make sure that if we need to do restraining, if approximate we need to refocus our efforts in that regard, then that's exactly what we do. >> as somebody who travels a lot around the world -- i'm talking about me -- i notice that whenever i travel in the united states i obviously have to take off my shoes when you go through the tsa lines but when you go to london, amsterdam, paris, rome, you go through europe, you don't have to take off your shoes. why the discrepancy? >> of course, it all dates back to 2001 with the shoe bomber. there's a policy here in the u.s. as we expand the known and trusted travel population, we actually expect approximately 45 to 50 million people this year to be able to keep their shoes on as they go through security screening. we're working with the european union to have consistency and

harmonization and we're working with manufacturers to make sure the best capabilities for shoes. there's a number of efforts that are ongoing to try to facilitate that. but the best way people can have the highest assurance to be able to keep their shoes on is to sign up for the custom borders global entry program. you submit an application online. you go in for an interview. $100 for five years or $20 a year. it's a good bargain that the u.s. government still offers. it's something that we encourage anybody who flies with any frequency, whether domestically or clearly internationally, to sign up for that program. >> it's a very good program and prescreen is a very good program. let's acknowledge that it's by no means perfect. there could be mistakes made. for example, someone like hasan at the ft. hood shooting incident, he probably would have been cleared but we saw what

happened over at ft. hood. >> well, the whole notion between risk-based security is to try to manage and mitigate risk to buy down risk, as you know. in life there's no guarantees about what we do but as we can obtain information about people who voluntarily share that with us, then we can make better informed judgments at the checkpoint because of that prescreening. >> mr. pistole, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. police are hunting for a gunman and warning people to be careful at the same time. that's just ahead right here in "the situation room." it's chevy truck month! silverado was also recognized for the lowest cost of ownership. hey, what are you gonna do with it? end table. oh. [ male announcer ] it's chevy truck month. now get 0% financing for 60 months, plus trade up to get $1,750 total allowance on a silverado all-star edition.

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mourning the victims of the shooting on the lag ves gag strip while police hunt for the killers. lisa sylvester is monitoring that. what's the latest on the las vegas shooting? >> las vegas police say their top priority is finding whoever was in the black range rover who fled the scene of the shooting yesterday. officers warn that the folks in that car should be considered armed and dangerous. three people were killed in the shooting and the car crash that followed after it. one was a rapper kenny clutch. he was a good father trying to become a success. we'll have a live report on this story in the next hour. and the vatican is retiring. the pope's twitter account when he steps down. the catholic leader has more than 12 million followers on twitter. and the cdc says this year's flu vaccine, well, it didn't work for most people over 65 years old. for that age group, it was

effective in just 9% of the cases. researchers say rates of hospitalization and death for the most common strain of the flu this year were some of the highest ever seen. doctors still aren't sure why. the vaccine did help half of those under 65, which is sort of curious that it helped some people but not all people. >> yeah, but it also -- even if you get the flu, if you have the vaccine, you've got a milder condition than if you don't have the vaccine, supposedly. >> one thing that they say is it's not an exact science. they try to predict what they think is going to be the predominant strains in the next season. so maybe they missed a couple. that's my best guess, is that they missed a couple of the more serious ones. >> all of the doctors recommend if you're over 6 months old, get the flu shot. >> i get the flu shot. >> thanks. me, too. want to avoid being killed in a drone strike in militants think they have the answer but who has the advantage? also, longer lineless at the

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♪ then you're going to love this. right now they're only $14.95! wow-a grt deal just got a whole lot better. hurry. $14.95 won't last. so is there unnecessary drama over the forced looming cuts? let's talk to the democratic strategist donna brazil and the florida republican strategist alex castellanos. thanks very much, guys, for coming in. alec, i know you think there's a lot of hypocrisy in the talk of the automatic spending cuts. why do you feel like there's so much hypocrisy? >> wolf, washington is holding a

tantrum. it is threaten itting to hold its breath and turn blue and what it wants is money without restrictions or limits. we're being black mailed by our own public servants with our own tax dollars and it's the most outrageous thing i've ever seen. ronald reagan fired the air traffic controllers and we didn't miss a beat. the president should step up and say, look, let's set an example. if we're going to have to cut this budget, let's find the most effective and least painful ways to dit and instead washington is throwing a tantrum and threatening us that if you don't let us keep all the money we have, there isn't a penny we could save, why, the country is going to end. >> go ahead, donna. >> first of all, let's get the facts right. we have known for many, many months that this was going to occur. president obama has submitted

proposals on three different occasions. a balanced approach. when the supercommittee was meeting back in the fall of 2011 and his own budget submission and last fall as part of the fiscal debate challenges, he's put office on the table to the congressional republicans who simply refuse to close corporate loopholes and to force the wealthiest americans to pay their fair share. we've had over $2.5 trillion in savings and cuts. we cannot cut our way to prosperity. we need a balanced approach and that's what the president has told the republicans. >> when she says balanced approach, alex, she means more taxes, higher taxes for wealthy americans and for big corporations. what's wrong with that? >> close loopholes. >> what's wrong with that is that washington is telling us that if we cut a single penny, then the national parks are going to close, as if the grand canyon was going to stop being a hole in the ground without federal funding. this is outrageous.

the people who are supposed to serve us are telling us they can't do with a penny less, while america has had to do without jobs, pay higher gas, payroll tax and washington is saying, no, give us more. >> why should we subsidize corporations, alex? get the facts right. why should -- >> that's not the issue. >> why should we subsidize corporations that take their jobs overseas? why should we continue to pay foreign subsidies? the president is saying we need a balanced approach. the president has proposed numerous cuts and this is a choice that the republicans are making. they want to protect the wealthy subsidies to companies that move jobs overseas but they would rather see 300,000 americans who are getting mental services and assistance. >> come on, donna. >> that's the choice we face.

so, alex, the president has put through legislation to cut -- >> go ahead, alex. >> look, both parties did i think something contemptible and that is they put a gun to the american people's head and they are debating who pulled the trigger if they don't get what they want. that certainly is not the way to do business. but the idea that there's nothing to cut in washington is crazy. do you know what president obama counted as one of his budget cuts in 2011? in 2010 we did the u.s. sencens. the fact that we didn't do it again in 2011 as a $6 billion budget cut. all the president's budget cuts are wars we're not going to fight so we're not going to have to pay for them. there's a lot of elusiory smoke and mirrors in the president's cuts.

these are real cuts but right now -- >> these are real cuts that will inflict wounds on ordinary american and especially the middle class. >> hold on. >> donna, it's the most painful way to teach us a lesson. >> because alex, all you're talking about is cuts. the president said put it all on the table and the republicans are saying we cannot take about raising revenues. we have a revenue as well as a spending problem and until we address both of them we are not going to find our way out of this. >> a congressional delegation has come back from cuba. donna, i know you've been to cuba. alex, you're a cuban-american. senator leahy met with raul castro. he just got back. >> i think everybody realizes this is not the 1960s. it's a different century, a

different world. we have to adapt to it. not to change their government or they to change ours but there are things we should do. i'll discuss those with president obama when i get back. >> is it time to open the door to cuba, alex? >> you know right now wolf f. it may be time to open the dialogue but cuba is not floating in a caribbean sea. hugo chavez is in health trouble, big trouble politically. if he passes away and venezuela stops supporting cuba, cuba could change. that could bring real change. we shouldn't interfere with that process and see if more pressure brings cuba our way. >> we need a change of policy, wolf. it's time for relations with cuba. it's time to embrace the people of cuba who are speaking out about their own government. it's time to lift the economic embargo when the government is

moving people off the state payroll. this is a great opening for us to now improve relations with cuba. and also let me once again mention that alan gross is still in jail, still in prison. he's been in there for a number of years. i hope the cuban government will free alan gross. >> that would be a good start if they would let him come back to the united states. thanks guys very much. every month patients are battling breast cancer. a new hope but a price that not everyone may be able to pay. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. ♪ make it worth watching. ♪ the new 2013 lexus ls. an entirely new pursuit. the new 2013 lexus ls.

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some very good news potentially for some people battling breast cancer. the fda has approved a new drug and it's showing promise for a

high price, though. our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is joining us. tell us about the drug. >> wolf, this drug, the doctors that i've been talking to about it are very excited. they say the women that are at the end stage of cancer and have nothing else to try, now there is something that they can try. now, this drug is not a cure. and i want to be very, very clear about that. let me show you what it does do. in the studies that they did, they found that women who were taking this drug, they lived for 9.6 months and it was good quality of life. they weren't very sick, for example. without this drug they lived for about 6.4 months. so that's wonderful. as you said, it does come with a high price tag and it doesn't work for all women. only one out of four women have

the type of breast cancer where it does work and even for those women sometimes it doesn't work. >> what about the side effects? >> you know, there aren't that many side effects compared to conventional chemotherapy. it can make you very sick. this drug doesn't attack healthy and cancer cells the way traditional chemo does. it's like a heat seeking missile and attacks the cancerous cells. it does have some side defects but conventional compared to chemo. you know it's going to cost a lot of money. it costs nearly $100,000 a year for this drug. that is a lot of money. women who have good insurance, i'm quite confident it would cover it but women who don't have great insurance or who aren't insured, it's going to be an issue. >> elizabeth cohen, thanks very much. when we come back, new information about what the white house is willing to share with congress when it comes to the killings that took place in

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seems as if you look hard enough you can find a how-to list for just about everything. apparently that includes a list for terrorists who want to avoid being killed by u.s. drones. cnn's brian todd has been looking at this list and how it came to light. what are you finding out, brian? >> well, wolf, one tip is to use smoke by cover by burning tires. al qaeda fighters in africa may have to do that soon. today president obama informed congress that a small deploit of troops to niger was complete. they have agreed to let u.s. drones operate from its

territory so that could put pressure on al qaeda militants in nearby mali. ranging from the clever to the obvious. don't use your wireless device, hide under thick trees. for al qaeda fighters on the battlefield, words literally to live by. those are tips from 22 militants on how to avoid don't strikes. those suggestions were found in a building in mali were islamic militants are fighting. >> we have evidence to suggest that the drone strikes have been traumatic to al qaeda, a high degree of paranoia, fearful that they've been infiltrated by spy. >> osama bin laden shortly before his death wrote letters to al qaeda leaders with similar suggestions, saying that they shouldn't meet on the highways or move in their cars because many got far getttargeted while

on the road. as for this other list of suggestions, one of the tips, if you're in a car and learn there's a drone after you, leave the vehicle immediately and all of the passengers should leave in separate directions. use dummies to throw the drones off their trail. the allies used inflatable truck decoys to fool germans in world war ii. do whatever you can to jam the drone's electronics. could this really do that? >> in general terms, they are good for people who are in a desert environment trying to avoid drones but there are a lot of limitations to them. >> the advantage, layton says, is still with the drone operators. >> if they can differentiate between what's in a shadow, what's supposed to be in a

shadow or not, natural light conditions, then they have a good chance of being able to flush out the guerrillas. >> despite al qaeda's evasive tactics, drones are deadly as ever. the number of people killed during the war strikes during the war on terror is at about 2,000 and 4700. of those, 250 have been civilians. wolf? >> the al qaeda fighters in mali have used similar tactics, right? >> they have placed grass mats and other mats on top of their cars. sometimes the warplanes can't detect that there's a car under those mats and they have used mud to hide from drones as well. >> brian todd reporting, thank you. all right. we're just getting word that the white house is apparently ready to share some more information

with congress about the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. jim acosta is at the white house. what are you learning, jim? >> reporter: we have heard from a senior administration official that the administration is now going to have some conversations with members of congress about the issue -- two issues, really. one being the issue of materials that members of congress would like to see about those attacks in benghazi that occurred in september of last year and then also there have been some questions raised about the targeted drone strikes and members of congress would also like to see some materials, memos, really, that are offering legal guidance to the white house as to the legality of the targeted drone strikes. i have a comment from a senior administration official who says we are having conversations about that and we have learned from a congressional source earlier today that the white house has agreed to turn over to

the senate intelligence committee, e-mails and intelligence reports related to that attack on benghazi. all of this is important, wolf, because next week we have -- we're expecting votes on two big confirmations that are very important to this white house. one is the defense secretary that the president would like to see over at the pentagon, chuck hagel, and then john brennan, his pick for the cia. obviously the benghazi matter is an obstacle for chuck hagel's confirmation and vote there in congress and then this john brennan matter is very important to the issue of these targeted drone strikes, rand paul, the senator from kentucky has said that he is willing to hold up that vote on john brennan. if he doesn't receive assurances from the white house that the united states will not target any drone strikes on americans on american soil. so some of this information i think the administration is hoping will at least for now

satisfy some of those members with these concerns, wolf. >> it's going to be a tough battle, i take it. both of these confirmations likely to go through next week. but it's by no means a done deal, is it? >> reporter: it's not a -- especially when you have senators saying they may hold up nominees and so we're going to have to wait and see whether or not senator paul is satisfied with the information that he's getting from the white house. but this is perhaps, you know, a break in an impasse that we've seen for many, many months, especially over this issue of benghazi. we heard senator lindsey graham from south carolina almost basically stomp his feet up on capitol hill saying he is just not getting enough on this issue of benghazi. and according to this congressional source, e-mails and intelligence reports are being turned over related to that matter, wolf. >> and john mccain has insisted that the white house was engaged in a coverup when it comes to benghazi. jim acosta at the white house,

thanks very much. coming up in our next hour, i'm going to speak live with the white house press secretary jay karn near. we'll speak about this and other issues including the forced budget cuts. we'll speak about tr issues including the forced budget cuts. c. we'll speak about this and other issues including the forced budget cuts. a. we'll speak about this and other issues including the forced budget cuts. r. we'll speak about this and other issues including the forced budget cuts. n. we'll speak about this and other issues including the forced budget cuts. e. we'll speak about this and other issues including the forced budget cuts. y. we'll speak about this and other issues including the forced budget cuts. . . .... ♪ [ male announcer ] when we built the cadillac ats from the ground up to be the world's best sport sedan... ♪ ...people noticed. ♪ the all-new cadillac ats -- 2013 north american car of the year. ♪ for a limited time,

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happening now, president obama holding out hope to avert massive forced budget cuts one week from today. his press secretary jay carney joins me live this hour. the high cost of health care and uncovered extraordinary salaries for health care executives. and off the battlefield and on to the big screen. how wounded u.s. veterans bring authenticity to the film "lincoln." we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." the cuts are getting closer. the warnings are getting more dire. one week from today, yes, one week from today, $85 billion will be stripped from the government budget unless the white house and congress can strike a deal.

there's little sign of progress but president obama says, and i'm quoting him now, hope springs eternal. our national political correspondent jim acosta is at the white house and joining us on this story. jim? >> reporter: it doesn't feel very spring-like here at the white house but the president wants to take his message on these forced budget cuts over the heads of congress and directly to the american people. consider what happened with the white house earlier this afternoon. he made the rare move of taking questions from the press inside the oval office as he was sitting down with the prime minister from japan and it was all about these automatic spending cuts that go into effect starting one week from today. he warned that the cuts will hurt middle class americans and he does remain optimistic that somehow those cuts might become averted. here's what he had to say. >> hope springs eternal and i will keep on making my case not

only to congress but more importantly to the american people. take a smart approach to deficit reduction and do it in a way that doesn't endanger our economy and jobs. >> reporter: now, just to hammer that message home, the white house sent out ray lahood to talk to reporters at the white house briefing. he talked about what he called a cal c calamity if these cuts go through. 47,000 faa employees are facing furloughs. that would result in delays at the airports and air traffic control would not have the staff that they normally would have and they might be closed altogether at the small air traffic control offices. here's what the transportation secretary had to say. >> flights to major cities, like

new york, chicago, san francisco, and others could experience delays up to 90 minutes during peak hours because we have fewer controllers on staff. delays in these major airports will ripple across the country. >> reporter: now, earlier today, house speaker john boehner sent out a tweet complaining that the president is spending more time trying to blame republicans that he's actually engaging in negotiations and i can tell you from talking to both the speaker's office and the office of senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, they have had no further conversations with the president since the conversations they had yesterday, wolf. >> and i take it the president once again taking this on the road? what's going on? >> reporter: that's right. we saw him with first responders earlier this week. next week he's going down to the tidewater area of virginia. he'll be in new york news visiting a ship building business. obviously this is a business that will be affected by cuts over at the pentagon.

and the transportation secretary and white house press secretary jay carney making the point today that when you have these effects of these cuts happening across the country, they not only affect federal employees or federal programs, you have vendors all across the country that are affected. and so that's what the president will be explaining on tuesday when he goes down to the tidewater area to say, hey, ship builders are not only affected. all of their vendors that go to the process of sending parts and supplies to that ship building business, they will be affected as well, wolf. >> jim, thanks very much. jim acosta at the white house. let's dig deeper with jessica yellin. she's here along with our chief political correspondent gloria borger and john king is in cambridge, massachusetts. let's start with you, john. we think these spending cuts will go into effect or will there be a last-minute deal? >> if you talk to both sides, it

sure seems like they will go into effect. remember, we've had many of these crises. if there is to be a deal, we'll be talking about it next wednesday and thursday but as of today, don't count on it. >> the president made some phone calls yesterday to house speaker john boehner, the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell. anything based on all of the reporting that you're doing, has anything emerged? are they going to sit down and get together and work something out? >> as of yet, no. right now democrats and republicans are just too far apart, wolf. the president has put out a plan. i have it right here in black and white. it has $900 billion in cuts. it includes $400 billion in cuts to medicare and medicaid. republicans have already seen it and rejected it. >> that was the 2011 plan. >> his point is, this includes -- it's well over $85 billion in cuts because there's

900 in here and they can obviously get to 85 within that. >> forego tax increases? >> no. and that's the problem. he wants that tax increase as part of the deal and republicans say that's a nonstarter. the problem is, there's no halfway point. >> they are talking past each other. they are not talking to each other. they had these prefunctory phone calls but nothing was solved. i think the truth of the matter is, although they wouldn't admit it publicly, is that at this point both of them, sides, would probably prefer a sequester to the alternative of what it would take to avoid a sequester. they are not ready to sit down. the president thinks he can make his point that the republicans are unwilling to close tax loopholes on the rich and the republicans are saying, you know what, this president doesn't want to do the spending cuts. they are taking short-term political gain, they each believe. but in the long term i think

it's just going to hurt them all. >> john, let me read to you an article that david brooks wrote today. sequestration may have seemed insane back then when it was initially conceived at the white house. but politicians in both parties are secretly discovering that they love sequestration now. so i guess the question is, how much hypocrisy is going on right now on both sides? >> there's a ton of hypocrisy going on with both sides. i we seem to be doing this every three or six or nine months because they can't do their most basic job, pass a budget. they put that in place. the president thought there's no way the republicans will take those defense cuts so they'll come to a grand bargain with me. republicans saying it's the only way to get a law to say we have to have some cuts because they don't think the president is ever going to give them the cuts

they want. the problem is, the republicans want to do medicare and social security and the democrats will tell you the only way to get the big math is to do medicare and social security but it's exempt from the sequester. we haven't moved the ball forward as far as a policy perspective. both sides anticipate this happening a week from now. but remember, there's a march 26th, another deadline that looms then. both parties think privately if it happens, it will only happen for a week or two so then they will do something. >> they are in a perfect world. zero accountability, zero responsibility. >> this will happen for a few weeks, we'll all start feeling -- >> that's not right for the country. >> it's what's likely to happen. >> and that's the problem because no one is willing to accept the leadership role here and if the economy tanks as a result, and i also agree that at some point they are going to come up with a deal. >> will it tank or will it

suffer? let's be honest. the economy is not necessarily going to tank. it will suffer. >> suffer, tank, not good. still not good. >> not good. we'll agree on that. the prediction is, as john said, the forcing event is not this next -- this march 1st date. it's the march 27 date which is when the govern in the right after that runs out of money and that's when the day after that no government workers will be -- >> usual leap they pass a continuing resolution. a cr, as it is called. >> right. but we probably have to get some sort of an agreement on all of these things before then to kick the can down the road a little bit. that's the expectation both in the white house and on capitol hill. so maybe a short-term deal will be worked out but the problem is a short-term deal is how we got to this problem in the first place. >> so you have a politics that's so dysfunctional that you have to depend on disruption of government services in order to get people to actually do their jobs. it's ridiculous. >> john, before i let you go,

walk us through. what's going to happen? assuming that these forced spending cuts go into effect one week from today, what happens in the week or two or three that follows? >> well, that is the big question. republicans believe the president's exaggerating. the president says he has no authority to sort of pick within the agencies to prioritize within the agencies, that these are across the board cuts and therefore, as you heard them saying, flights will be delayed. there won't be enough traffic controllers. the republicans are saying that's exaggerated. agencies can make some adjustments to provide vital services. we're about to find out once they kick in. who's right? how severe is the pain? that will affect the politics and pressure to get back to the deal. one quick observation, i'm up here part time at the kennedy school. great kids, republicans, democrats who want to get into

public service. they watch this play out and they say, why would i ever want to work in washington? >> i think we're discouraging a lot of young people from working in washington. >> we only cover one story in washington, wolf, and this is it. >> dysfunction. all right. coming up, the west wing take on the battle of the white house. jay carney is standing by live in "the situation room." also, residents of a los angeles hotel are horrified to learn of a corps in their water tank. there's new information on what happened. into buy one.irely newy tank. there's new information on what happened. no. no. yes! a website that works like a wedding registry. but for a car. first, you customize it. then let people sponsor the car's parts as gifts. dad sponsors the engine for your birthday. grandma sponsors the rims for graduation. the car gets funded. then you pick up your new dodge dart at the dealership. and all that's left to do is say thanks. easy. ♪ [ slap! ]

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we're following a manhunt that police describes as tense and focused. they are looking for the shooter in a land rover that rocked the vegas strip. cnn's miguel marquez is joining us with the very latest. what do you know, miguel? >> reporter: investigators are working very hard. the same time we're learning who some of the victims were and certainly the biggest victims in

all of this is the taxi driver who burst into flames. he's 62-year-old michael bolden. he was in vegas, from detroit, a father a. grandfather. he moved there because he was taking care of his mother. this was his first call of the day, wolf, and his brother says this is a guy who just had a heart of gold. >> my life mission would be to see them punished and brought to justice for the senseless thing that they did. they don't know who they touched. >> we also understand the driver of the maserati and coroner's office in las vegas has confirmed this, it's kenneth cherry from oakland. he's an aspiring rapper from oakland who goes by kenny clutch. the passenger in the car was only lightly injured and they are able to talk to that person and stay in touch with him. he is a father of two kids.

as you know, this all began at the valet section at a hotel and shot and killed and slammed into the taxi. his father says he and the family are devastated. >> when i talk about my son, that was the sweetest young man i've ever met in his life. kenny was a smart, loveable person and he cared about other people. >> one thing that is very interesting about this situation, wolf, is that the las vegas police, we had expected, would release pictures or video of the individuals who got into that black suv, that range rover and of the range rover itself. that has not happened, which is somewhat surprising because las vegas has so many cameras, so much security, so many valet individuals that would have seen what happened and have very good witnesses. it is likely they seem to be working a lot of different

things at the same time. they are saying at the moment that they have lots of good leads. it's just a question of time before they are able to act on them. wolf? >> but if they have pictures of the suspects, why wouldn't they release that and maybe average folks out there could spot them and help find the individuals? >> it is not clear. they may know who they are and they may want to get their case completely buttoned down before they go after them and make arrests. they may know that they've left the state and may be looking for them and don't want it out to the press because they don't want them to bolt. it's not very clear at the moment, wolf, but it seems they have a heck of a lot of information on these individuals. >> miguel, stay in touch with us and update us when you get more. thank you very much. the discovery of a corpse inside a hotel water tank has residents horrified and investigators searching for answers. how did the young woman's body get there? cnn's kyung lah has the gruesome

mystery from los angeles. what are you hearing? >> the coroner is telling us it may be some time before we know the cause of death because the amount of time that the body was in the water. water from the tap, something the cecil hotel doesn't want you to see. hotel resident helped us videotape it with a cell phone. chlorine. what the city is using to flush the hotel's entire water system after the gruesome discovery of a woman's body inside one of the rooftop tanks that may have been there for as long as 2 1/2 weeks. four tanks connect to the hotel's drinking supply and during those weeks, hundreds of residents and hotel guests have been using it. >> it really turns my stomach.

a lot of people have left and went to another hotel. just the thought of it for so long. >> the woman inside the tank, 21-year-old alisa lamb. the tourist arrived in los angeles january 26th. surveillance video shows her acting oddly inside the hotel elevator as if she's hiding from someone. but indicate tee orphan said that lamb didn't seem odd at all when they met. >> she was very outgoing, very lively, very friendly. >> orphan is the manager of a bookstore around the corner of the hotel called "the last bookstore," one of the last places that lamb was seen by anyone as she bought records for her parents and sister. >> talking about what books she was getting and whether or not what she was getting would be too heavy for her to carry around as she traveled or take home with her. >> that was january 31st. the young woman planned to see more of california, say the police. her parents flew down to los angeles to plead for the city to

help find their daughter. outside the family's restaurant near vancouver, a memorial for a young life lost too soon in an unforgettable manner. >> it kind of feels the beginning of a novel, a raymond chandler story and phillip mar low is going to figure out what happened and unfortunately this is real life. >> the public health department in los angeles did test the water. we did get those test results yesterday. the investigators saying that as unpleasant as it may be for the hundreds of hotel guests who may have drank the water recently, the water did not contain any unsafe bacteria. wolf? >> at least not as -- i guess good news to know. thanks, kyung lah. so you know the names, daniel day-lewis, sally fields, steven spielberg. that's coming up. today is gonna be an important day for us.

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all right. this just coming into "the situation room." britain's bond rating has been downgraded. they are taking it down a not from the top notch of aaa to aa-1. moodys has made the move in part because of the uk's rising debt outlook over the next few years. britain's bond rating downgraded. we've also just learned the man dubbed the world's most wanted deadbeat dad has been caught. lisa sylvester is monitoring

that. what happened? >> that man's name, robert sand. he owes $1.2 million in child support. he has three children from two marriages but has avoided making the payments since 1996. he was arrested at los angeles international airport after being deported from the philippines. and much of athens, greece, is under floods after torrential rains. there are reports that at least one person has died and thousands, you see there, were stranded. the floods came in so fast that people had almost no time to react. a worker was left dangling through a glass ceiling at the parliament building there. here in the united states, residents of 20 states are digging themselves out from a massive snowstorm. some places saw snowfall records. kansas city international, for example, they got nine inches in a single day. almost doubling the previous record. and check out this ireport from wichita, kansas, showing enormous chunks of snow falling

from a building. wichita got 14 inches over two days and it's all part of a huge system that will eventually cause can snow from the mexican border all the way to new england which is where it is headed now. all right. you may have heard of acid rain but what about fire rain? check out this incredible video from nasa. it shows an eruption on the sun, which is pretty common. but this one is a little different because of something called cornell rain. it's making fiery loops. it's amazing how big this thing is and my favorite part of the story is, if you take a look, that little dot right there on the screen in the upper right-hand corner, that is actually earth. that gives you a little bit of a perspective of how large that thing is. >> it's pretty hot on the sun. >> just a bit. you think? >> sort of warm. thank you.

just ahead a. story that will likely change the way that you view so-called nonprofit hospitals for the rest of your life. "time" magazine has partnered up with a jaw-dropping report. part two of this report. you're going to have to see it to believe it. all waking up. connecting to the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. ♪ it's going to be amazing. and exciting. and maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. we're going to wake the world up. and watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. cisco. tomorrow starts here.

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drew griffin of cnn's special investigation unit reports. >> pat palmer has built a business around helping patients fight hospital bills. you don't have a separate electricity bill added on to your grocery bill or a refrigeration bill charged separately when you buy ice cream. she argues if hotels ran their business like hospitals, you'd be charged for lying down on the bed. >> absolutely. if we went to a hotel and they charged us for sheets and towels, there would be a raucous made over those kinds of charges. and major issues and yet we're letting the medical industry do this on a daily basis. >> she's found hospitals billing for everything from tissues to little white cups that hold aspirins. everything has a charge. the bill sometimes hundreds of pages long has hidden codes or

names. steven brill writing a special report for "time" magazine has come to one conclusion. hospitals want to prevent patients to know what they are paying for all in an attempt to get away with as much as they can get away with. >> i defy you to take any hospital bill and anyone knows this, try to read that bill and try to understand what it says and what the prices actually are, let alone what the prices are based on. i mean, it's the opposite of transparency. >> but not everyone, of course, is feeling that pinch. in the world of nonprofit hospitals, some people are making a fortune. ceos are billing and rival ceos of major for profit businesses. take a look at this list put

together by a health care business review journal of 2010 and 2011 tax filings which showed ceos of top grossing nonprofit hospitals making multimillion dollar figures. watch as the numbers get bigger. the top salary paid in 2010? dean harrison, chief administrator of the prestigious northwestern memorial in chicago. his salary and one-time bonus earned him a whopping $9.7 million. when we asked him about these high salaries and high hospital bills, we were sent to taylor, michigan, chief medical officer for oakwood health care system. but even he didn't want to talk about hospital executive salaries. he was willing, though, to discuss can hospital billing. here the hospital says it tries to work with patients to understand their bills.

>> the information we provide is not perfect. it doesn't disclose everything and it's not for everyone easily understandable but it's a start. and i think this notion of transparency in health care is important. >> henoch admits billing from hospitals is confusing but notes the cost of a simple blood draw. there's lot of costs that patients don't see. >> the cost of that is not just the cost of that vial but a cost of a technician who processes that sample. a cost -- a fraction of a cost of that individual who's drawn that blood from you, a fraction of the cost of that equipment that analyzes that blood sample. a fraction of the cost of that electronic laboratory information system that we need to collect and store and

disseminate that information to the physician, to the nurse, perhaps to a number of physicians not even practicing at the hospital. >> which is why some people may be billed up to $200 just for a warm blanket. it is, in fact, all up for negotiation. if you are insured, your insurance company does the negotiating. if you're on medicare, the government negotiates. if you are paying out of pocket, then the hospitals paying those million dollar salaries determine just how much you will pay. your wealth or your health? drew griffin, cnn, atlanta. >> "time" magazine reports that americans will spend $2.8 trillion on health care this year. per person, that's 27% more than other developed nations spend on health care and as drew's report pointed out, hospitals are getting a lot, a lot of that money. president obama making some dire warnings about the forced budget cuts about to take effect

a week from today. why did the president propose that to begin with? i'll ask press secretary jay carney. he's standing by live. got enough joshua trees? ... on up to 25 devices. so you can spend less time... yea, the golden barrels... managing wireless costs and technology and more time driving your business potential. looks like we're going to need to order more agaves... ah! oh! ow! ... and more bandages. that's powerful. shareable data plus unlimited talk and text. now save $50 on a droid razr maxx hd by motorola.

so one week from today, the roman catholic church will be without a pope. pope benedict xvi is resigning. cnn's brian todd is here in "the situation room" with more. so what happens in the interim. he resigns before a new pope is elected? >> that's right. the game of who's in charge and who's next is in full swing. the vatican is being opaque

right now but we do know of some key players to watch. it's palace intrigue in overdrive with benedict xvi leaving, who will take over the vatican until a new pope is elected? an administrator that deals with fi n fi nans, portrayed as an evil master power broker. in real life, the title is held by a powerful position of secretary of state who in the vatican is like a prime minister. experts say don't get the idea that bertoni is the face of a legend. >> he's not the best organizer? >> no. the joke in rome is he couldn't organize a one-man band.

>> michael shawn winters says bertoni was damaged in the scandal when mismanaged and corruption was leaked. despite his current status, he has no shot of becoming pope. analysts say he's also a bitter rival of the head of cardinals who elects the new pope. >> are we looking at a power struggle in the interim between those two? >> i don't think so. the interim will be a very short period. you don't have to have a funeral. you don't have to have the mourning period. they can go right into the congregation and conclave right after the pope resigns. >> why would the pope resign now just as easter season begins? the most important time for the pope. he had surgery to implant a pacemaker but insist that he's

not sick. >> the common phrase is, the pope is well until he's dead. >> is benedict being pushed out? the experts we spoke to don't think so. all of his advisers lose their power as soon as he walks out the door so they likely wouldn't have moved against him, wolf. >> does the pope when he gives up being the pope, does he go back to his old name? what's going on? >> that's a question that has been talked about. analysts don't know. we haven't had this problem for a long time. he could get a title like bishop of rome. the church cannot be seen as having two popes rivaling at each other for power. it's already bizarre enough as it is. >> brian todd reporting, thanks very much. coming up, jay carney will join me live in "the situation room."

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so we're only one week away from an $85 billion forced budget cut can, part of a deal that was struck back in 2011 to raise the nation's debt limit. everyone assumed at the time that the white house and congress would reach a new deal to avert these forced cuts which are across the board and rather ugly. but now with only seven days left, there's lots of finger pointing going on but apparently no progress in resolving this crisis. let's talk about it with jay carney. jay, thanks very much for coming in. >> glad to be here, wolf. thanks for having me. >> let me read to you a little bit from david brooks' column in the "new york times." he begins with these words.

on july 26, 2011, jack lew went to harry read's budget for a session. according to bob woodward's book, they came up with a trigger idea to force a budget deal. what's the idea, reid asked? sequestration, lew said. reid folded himself over with his head between his knees as if he was going to throw up. here's the question. if this is such a horrible idea, sequestration or these forced budget cuts, why did the white house come up with this idea to begin with? >> well, as you remember, wolf, in the summer of 2011, we were facing a situation where the nation was about to default for the first time in its history because republicans were refusing to agree to a balanced

approach to a deficit reduction. both sides were looking for a way to craft a deal that would avoid default and a trigger mechanism. sequestration, which is a word that most americans have never heard before, is simply a way of crafting policy that was so onerous that would cause cuts that nobody liked, republicans or democrats, and because of that they would compel the prospect of sequestration to compel congress to compromise, come together on further deficit reduction in a balanced way. you know, i understand that people like to point out that the idea was first floated by the white house but let's get real about what happened. on the day that congress passed the sequester, john boehner, speaker of the house, told cbs news that he got, quote, 98% of what he wanted and that he was

very pleased or pretty pleased. 171 republicans voted for it in the house. overwhelming number of republicans. far more than democrats and every republican leader voted for it. but here's the deal. it doesn't matter that republicans and democrats voted for it because the whole point was that it wasn't supposed to come to pass and right now the president has been putting forward and democrats have been putting forward ways to avert the sequester so it doesn't take place so jobs aren't lost but republicans are saying, absolutely not. we're done talking about balance. we're done talking about revenues. we'd rather see those jobs lost and sequester take effect than asked corporations that get tax breaks and small businesses don't get or wealthy individuals that get -- >> let me just ask -- >> they get to keep them rather than to ask them to give them up. >> so nobody thought that these forced cuts would go into effect. here's the question, with hindsight, was it a blunder, was it a mistake to even raise this idea called sequestration? >> wolf, you're missing the point. everybody was looking for a way out of this and there was different ways to do t

republican senators graham and rugman crafted a sequester in the 1980s as part of a tax reform deal working with president reagan. the point is, it wasn't supposed to become policy. what we have now is a situation where the president has put forward proposals to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion that it supposed to become policy. what we have now is a situation where the president has put forward proposals to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion in total over ten years which is a a goal that bipartisan commissions and economists have said that it is necessary to reach fiscal stability, and reduce the share of the, you know, the reduce the share of gdp and the deficits as a share of the gdp, and that is the goal that john boehner and the president sought when they worked on the grand bargain in summer of 2011 and when they worked on the deal late last ye year, and the president has put forward the proposal, but a poll shows that 76% of the american people support the balanced approach, but 19% support the

republican position that it has to be done with spending cuts alone and something has to give. and there has to be a compromise. >> okay. something has to give, and i know that the speaker john boehner called and mitch mcconnell called the speaker, and anything emerge? >> well, we are not reading out of the comments, but we have made it clear and made it clear publicly so i can make it quite obviously that the president's position is that he supports efforts in the senate and the house to buy down the sequester and delay it and make sure it does not happen in a balanced way and a mixture of spending cuts and revenues. he has left on the table the offer that john boehner left on the table late last year which is additional revenues through tax reform, but also tough spending cuts and entitlement reforms, and here is the thing that perplexing to us, wolf, you

remember last year in the negotiations in december, the speaker of the house said he could come up with $800 billion or $1 trillion in tax revenue closing loopholes or eliminating or capping deductions for wealthy individuals and corporations with the special tax breaks. he said he could do that then, but he won't do it now. it makes no sense. instead, rather than do that, and end the corporate tax break for jet owners, he would rather see 750,000 lose their jobs and the economy take the hit that sequester would give it. >> and do you expect the president to ip vnvite the leadership over to the white house for a last-minute compromise? >> well, as you know, they spoke yesterday, the leaders with the president, and i'm sure that the president will continue the engage with congress appropriately, and we are wor g working obviously with congress on this issue. but there's a fundamental problem here. the republicans have been public that their position is that they will not compromise and they are

done talking about balance in our approach to deficit reduction. the problem with that is that the american people disagree overwhelmi overwhelmingly, and set aside they don't agree with the president, but at odds with the position of 76% of the american people, and that includes a majority of self-identified republicans. >> to be precise, jay. you know, as part of the deal to avert the fiscal cliff in december, you did raise taxes on the wealthiest americans and the republicans are saying for now, they are not going to talk about taxes. you want to talk about the comprehensive tax reform, and couple that with comprehensive entitlement reform and low ter rates and the loopholes and the deductions and get some big picture deal, be you clearly don't have time for that over the next week. >> right. which is why the president says that we should buy down the sequester just like the republicans and the democrats did in the fiscal cliff deal for two months and the reason that the deadline is march 1st is that it was postponed from

january 1st by a bi-papartisan l that included revenues and spending cuts, a small package to buy it down. >> and are you open to another two-month delay sf. >> they have said they will not go along with a postpone mement the sequester if it includes balance which is preposterous position, because it is a position that not only does the president hold, and the democrats and the congress hold, but the american people insist is what they want. so, you know, we are just, and the president has been entirely reasonable here that the sequester will have negative impacts on the economy and out soo outside economists say as much as more than 0.5% will be taken away from the gdp if the sequester kicks in and lose up to 750,000 jobs and the furlough notices will go out, and people are sitting around the kitchen table tonight and wondering if their child who is on a head start program is going to lose the slot because of lack of

funding. these are real people with real world effects, and wolf, no reason for this to happen. it is a reasonable outcome to be had. >> this is the worst way to cut spending, and everybody appreciates that you have a week to work out a deal and hopefully, you can, because we don't want those kids not having a little head start program or food or whatever that it takes. obvio obviously, we want air traffic controllers on the job. and tsa and the military personnel on the job as well. so a lot is at stake, and hopefully the president, boehner, mitch mcconnell, and the democratic leadership and all of you guys can get together and work out a deal. that is what the american people want, and we hope you can do it. >> i thank you. wolf, i want to point out that it is true that the tax rates went up on the top earners in the country, and the millionaires and the billionaires as part of the fiscal cliff deal, and with that achievement the president has signed into law $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction and what the viewer need to nknow is that of the $2.5 trillion, two-thirds have come in spending cuts which

is ratio of 2 to 1 in spending to cuts and that is balance. and the president has put it on the table and offers for sb entitlement reform savings and this is not revenue alone, but balance and middle of the road approach. we urge the republicans to take it up. >> we will see what happens over the next few days. jay carney is the white house press secretary. thank you for coming in. >> wolf, always glad to be with you. thanks. when we come back, for some of lincoln's extras this weekend means more than a gold statue. ♪

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wow-a grt deal just got a whole lot better. hurry. $14.95 won't last. in the hit movie "lincoln" the the extras are special. here is barbara starr. >> reporter: inste steven spielberg's "lincoln" a tired and embattled president goes through the battlefield. but daniel day-lewis says that some of the soldiers were not acting. two years after losing his legs in an ied explosion in afghanistan, joey jones was one of the three veterans cast in the film. >> as a georgia boy, you are intimidated by hollywood. >> reporter: spielberg who is a long time supporter of veterans wanted real life amputees for this critical scene where

lincoln visits the hospital. >> before they shot the scene, steven spielberg came in, and i got the image that hi was placing the veterans closest to the veterans. >> reporter: he shot three scenes, but you only see him in this one. watch again, his only one line. >> john. >> the president is going to come in and we will film him coming in to greet you like he did back in the war. >> reporter: just six seconds, but it left an impression. >> i have had dinner with the current president, president obama, and when daniel walked into the room, i got more of a feeling of respect for the president for at least five minutes, and i shook president lincoln's hand is what it felt like. >> reporter: it would be a friendship between the young marine and the actor. >> so once the camera crew left, he was daniel day-lewis and we spoke and probably the nicest celebrity i have ever met.

>> reporter: lewis even came to jones' wedding a few months l e later. >> i have had a few jokes back and forth about who my favorite president was, because i have met president obama and him. >> reporter: who is your favorite president? >> we will settle on theodore roosevelt. >> reporter: barbara starr, cnn, krgt. happening now, olympic track star and alleged murder oscar passer toous is free on bail and what is next for the blade runner? and air traffic controller towers across america may close, and we will tell you why. humans may get closer to mars than you might think. we will talk to a man planning a historic mission. and standby for the last-minute buzz of the academy awards and the favorites and the snubs hitting close to home. and we will catch up with two tiny babies, who proved the power of touch. wait until you see them now.

i'm wolf blitzer, and you are in i'm wolf blitzer, and you are in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com the defendant in one of the most sensational murder cases in the world right now is a free man at least temporarily. olympic track star oscar pistorius was released from jail today after being granted bail. the decision is raising some new questions about the case against pistorius, and in the killing of his girlfriend on valentine's day. cnn's robin kurnow is joining s from south africa. what is the latest, robin? >> well, tonight, os kaur pass tourous is spending the night at the house of a family member. aim looking at the notes here and you can see, it is a rather

large notebook and i have taken quite a few notes, and i will say, what is summing up this case, and what is denining this case? there was a statement made by the prosecution who said -- let me find it for me. we have a woman who in the early hours of the morning locked herself in the toilet. why? and will that question ever really be answered? and then the line from oscar pistorius. i didn't intend to kill my girlfriend. those two things have never really been measured up in the past few days. you know, it is a sensational trial when it does come to trial. we wonder if the questions will ever be answered and if the truth will ever really come out, but in terms of what happened today, at least the beginning of one process, so take a look at this. >> reporter: a media frenzy on a pretoria road, and cameras

trying to see what is behind the window of the land rover. a glimpse of oscar pistorius sitting in the back seat. he has just gotten bail and drive down the street. in cold, the gold medal winner accused of killing his girlfriend was gaunt, motion e motionalless, and no idea whether or not he would be granted bail. following the closing arguments the judge allowed televised ruling. it was a ruling that meticulously detailed the evidence of the case and the history of the laws relating to it. through the almost two-hour presentation, the magistrate criticized the media and alternatively chastised the prosecution and picked at the defense for no definitive evidence and not giving a clue which way he would rule until finally he presented enough evidence to grant bail.

>> the accused has presented enough evidence to be released on bail. >> reporter: a short burst of joy from the courtroom, but pistorius was silent. no reaction, just drained. out soo outside of a court hanging on each development were generally mixed about pistorius' freedom. >> an innocent woman was prematurely murdered, and we do not believe that bail was sufficient at this point in time. i believe that os kaur should have been kept behind the bars for the heinous murder he committed and whether or not it is preled premeditated. >> reporter: others were sympathetic. >> i am happy he is released for a nation that is divided. more of the younger generation feel sim ympathy toward oscar a the other generation that feel that he should go to jail and be put to the sword. >> reporter: pistorius is out on bail in $100 million rand, and about $12,000.

and he must give up the passport to not leave the country. report the police twice a week and he can not drink alcohol which did not bother his attorney much after the hearing. >> how concerned are you about the issue of alcohol? >> well, he does not drink, so that is fine. >> reporter: but he is also barred from going to the scene of the crime. so as he was driven off this afternoon, he knew he could not go home and would be staying with the family, and the family telling cnn, they will be watching him closely in this time. this was just a bail hearing filled with emotion, conflict and overwhelming public interest here setting the scene for the trouble of a revered home country athlete who is charged with the premeditated murder of a young beautiful model, both with a promising life in front of them. no trial date has been set. and the magistrate said in court that really what it boils down to is that only one person knows

what happened that valentine's day morning, and that is oscar pistori pistorius, and will the pieces of the puzzle ever be put together. >> and robyn, you told me earlier, a year before the actual trial begins? >> absolutely. i mean, best case scenario, wolf, it starts at end of the year, and another six to eight months, and you know, it is a likely kind of early court date possibility, and then it can take a year, you know, for the entire trial to be finalized. so i mean, we are looking at here at least two years before we get any perhaps verdict. i mean, this is a trial that is obviously going to be huge, and it is going to overwhelm not just these families involved, but of course, this country who has had quite an emotional reaction to this murder. >> robyn kurnow on the scene for us. south africa is much more v

violent than the united states, and even though it is 1/6 of the size, and recent figures show it averages 44 murders a day compared to the united states with 40. the murder rate is 6.5 times greater murder rate than that of the united states. it may be more difficult and more dangerous the fly in and out of many american cities. the transportation secretary says that control towers may close at more than 100 smaller airports across the nation in all of those cities that you will see scrolling behind me. it is part of the new warning by the obama administration about the impact of those forced budget cuts. they go into effect in one week. one week. unless congress steps in. let's bring in our national political correspondent jim acosta over at the white house with the latest. jim? >> wolf, the secretary of transportation used the word calamity to describe how these automatic spending cuts will create air travel chaos across the country, and another example of how the president is

ratcheting up pressure on congress to win this budget battle. >> reporter: sitting down with the japanese prime minister, president obama was all but saying so long to congress when it comes to the forced spending cuts that are now one week away. >> i will keep on making my case not only to congress, but more importantly to the american people. >> reporter: to make the case, the president is spending more time going over the heads of gop leaders, appearing on talk radio. >> so what i need listeners to do more than anything is to put some pressure on the congress as usual. to get their act together and do the right thing. >> the white house sent out transportation secretary ray lahood to show how the cuts will impact air travel. 40,000 air aviation comptrollers would face furloughs which means fewer in towers and more delays. in some, air traffic controller towers could be shutdown completely. >> some larger cities could

experience delays of 90 minutes in peak hours. >> reporter: lahood urged people to see the movie "lincoln" to see how people work together. >> this is called an acting performance, because you are scaring the public today. this is scaring the public about their travel plans? >> well, we will see what the reaction of the public is. what i'm trying to do is to wake up members of the congress on the republican side to the idea that they need to come to the table and offer a proposal so that we don't have to have this kind of calamity in air service in america. >> reporter: but on twitter white house press secretary jay carney and the counterpart traded tweets over who is to blame with carney noting a recent poll showing that the americans support the president's approach to deficit reduction and it is a sign that the administration officials are con confident that public opinion is on their side.

>> the fact of the matter is that we can't get anything done without a bill passing the house of representatives. >> reporter: but some republicans say hold on. senator tom coburn sent a letter to the white house asking why some officials are spending money to travel the country to advise communities on how the secure federal dollars saying it is important as we as public officials lead by example, but it won't stop washington's latest game of budget chicken, and one that the president seems comfortable playing. >> unlike issues like the debt ceiling, the sequester going into effect will not threaten the world financial system. >> administration officials say that they are still open to some short term deal to avert the budget cuts, but in the mean tooil t time the president is planning to travel down the tidewater area of virginia to drive home that the automatic budget cuts will hurt naval shipbuilders in that part of the country, and a

signal, wolf, that the pending budget crisis may not be averted until then. >> we have a few days to go, and thank you very much, jim acosta. at lot more news coming up. >> a lot more news. al qaeda terrorists may be learning how to avoid america's most effective weapon, drones. we will tell you why. and two premature babies and how one helped save another's life, a hug. ahead, two sisters who changed medicine and now they are all grown up. it's lots of things. all waking up. ♪ becoming part of the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. ♪ trees will talk to networks will talk to scientists about climate change. cars will talk to road sensors will talk to stoplights about traffic efficiency. the ambulance will talk to patient records will talk to doctors about saving lives.

it's going to be amazing. and exciting. and maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. the next big thing? we're going to wake the world up. ♪ and watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. ♪ cisco. tomorrow starts here.

we have heard about the terrorists learning of new ways to kill on the internet and now they may be going on line to save their own lives. it is a how-to manual for avoiding drone strikes. cnn's brian todd has been looking into this, and it is quite a list. >> yes, it is quite a list. one of the ideas is to use smoke by burning tires. in africa they may have to do it

soon, because president obama said a small troops to najaire is complete, and they have agreed to let us use drones to battle areas that are being used by the french forces. from the obvious to the clever. >> reporter: for al qaeda fighters on the battlefield, there are 22 tips on the internet for ways to avoid a drone strike. that was in mali where the militants are battling french forces. >> we have seen that the drone strikes have been dramatic to the al qaeda and causing them to be paranoid and making them feel like they were infiltrated by

spi spies. >> reporter: before his death, osama bin laden said that fighters should not meet on roadways or move in cars, because many of them were targeted while they were meeting on the road. bin laden told every militant, quote, he should only move when the clouds are heavy, and as for the other list of suggestions. one of the tips, if you are in a car and you learn that there is a drone after you, leave and immediately the passengers could scatter in different directions. another one, is to set up fake gatherings of people with dummies to throw the drones off of the trail. similar tactic s has have been already. some were used in tactical equipment to avert aircraft. so also another tactic is to jam the electronics of the drone. we asked if these tax ticks could work. we asked general clayton if they could work? >> in general terms, they are good for people in a desert

environment to avoid drones, but there are a lot of limitations to them. >> reporter: he says that it is mostly to do with the drone operators. >> if they can determine what is supposed to be in a shadow and not supposed to be in a shadow and natural light conditions, then they have a good chance to flush out the guerrillas. >> and despite al qaeda's evasive at the tick s -- evasiv tactics the drones are deadly as ever. the number of those killed is around 2,470, and of those 250 have been civilians. >> separate from the list, al qaeda has been creative in how they are hiding in mali from the french warplanes. >> yes, these militants have placed grass mats on top of the cars when a warplane is hovering over and you can't tell whether it is a mat or something under it, and the cars covered in mud, and they are using creative

tactics and experts say they could be used against drones as well. >> it is the future of warfare it 'm it seems. >> yes, the war goes on. >> thank you, brian todd. and now we are following a shoot shooting out there on the las vegas strip. the most expensive weapon ever built has now been grounded. that is next. the verizon share everything plan for small business. get a shareable pool of data... got enough joshua trees? ... on up to 25 devices. so you can spend less time... yea, the golden barrels... managing wireless costs and technology and more time driving your business potential. looks like we're going to need to order more agaves... ah! oh! ow! ... and more bandages. that's powerful. shareable data plus unlimited talk and text. now save $50 on a droid razr maxx hd by motorola.

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a manhunt that police describe as intense and extre extremely focused. kate is here with that and some of the day's other top stories. what the latest? >> the hunt is still on for these people. las vegas police say that the top priority is finding whoever was in the black range rover that fled the scene of the deadly shooting yesterday. officers warn that the occupants should be considered armed and

dangerous. three people were killed in the shooting and car crash that followed. one was rapper kenny clutch and his attorney describes him as a good father trying to become a success. >> and a party is joining the whistle-blower suit against disgraced cyclist lance armstrong. he says they were victim of a multimillion dollar fraud because of his doping. they paid millions of dollars in sponsorship when armstrong was the lead rider. and moody's is saying that it is taking the britain aaa bond rating down because of the overlook and tepid growth over the next few years. something we need to watch very closely. and different news. stephen colbert proves he is serious about getting his sister elected to congress. tomorrow, he is hosting a

fund-raiser in a bowling alley, and the tv man spoofs politics, but he says that his sister is the real deal. >> i actually don't have anything to offer people in a public office. >> no. >> you know, it is natural for her to run, because she has skills. and something to offer society. i am professionally ridiculous. and so, i just hope that what i do for a living does not sully her good character. >> i don't think. so i think it would help her. >> really? have you seen my show. the primary in the special "house election" is next month, and this is a pretty i would not say solidly, but it is a republican-leaning district, and she a democrat, and we will see what happens after the election s. >> she is a colbert, and he is a colbert.

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♪ born to make mistakes liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? >> all right. this is coming in, the syrian opposition group, the main one has turned down invitation to meet with international leaders in rome. they are doing it as a protest for the recent bombbardment of the syrian city of aleppo by the syrian regime. president bashar al assad and they say that the meetings are counter productive and not getting enough physical help to fight the syrian army and including military aid and training. secretary of state john kerry was scheduled to at the end that meeting in rome. we will stay on top of that story for you. today, we got a dire warning to expect nightmares at the nation's airports. >> yes, it is because of the forced spending cuts that we have been talking about scheduled to hit every level of

federal government one week from today. renee marsh has been looking into this, and the direct impact on consumers and anyone who wants to get on a plane. >> yes, kate and wolf, the most information that we have gotten so far from the federal government. we now know more about what kind of impact consumers can expect to see. $600 million slashed from the faa's budget and the head of the department of transportation paints a doom and gloom p piict for flyers. >> reporter: a gummed up transportation system could be weeks away. >> flights to major cities like new york, chicago and san francisco and others could experience delays of up to 90 minutes. >> reporter: it is all part of how the transportation department says they will have to deal with the looming budget cuts. >> to likely close more than 100 air traffic control towers at airports with fewer than 150,000 flight operations per year. >> reporter: that means that smaller airports across the

nation places like boca raton, florida, joplin, missouri, will see the air traffic control towers shutdown. what does this mean for you? well, if they have fewer people in the tower es, they can't keep up the same pace of takeoffs or landings, and that could mean delays or fewer flights. fewer flights could mean higher ticket prices. and that's not all. a representative for the air traffic controllers worries about the impact. >> it is hard to see how that is not going to impact safety in terms of the efficiency and the safe toif system. so we are very concerned how that is going to play out. >> reporter: but the transportation department insists that the cuts will not impact safety after the furloughs kick in around april 1st. and the government also says that they would have to eliminate midnight shifts at tower es t towers, too, so lots of goods like pharmaceuticals and car parts could be delayed and as for the security lines, expect

them to be substantially longer. i asked one of the representatives for the control towers, and i said, you know, are there any upsides to this, and he said, look, the truth of the matter is that we do need to trim, and we do need the cut, but what could happen on march 1st is not the best way to do it. >> yeah, we can trim and cut, but this is an ugly way, and the least effective way of course to do it. really do it. >> looks like we are heading in that direction for sure. >> thank you. >> and now a new setback for the united states military, and the most expensive weapon system ever built. the f-35 fighter jet is now grounded. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr has more on the plane and the problems. >> reporter: they are sleek, deadly and very expensive. the f-35 fighter jet. supporters say think of it as a swiss army knife for 21st century warfare. so good that the air force, the navy and the marines all wanted

it. the pentagon plans the buy nearly 2,500 planes. the entire program, $400 billion, and the most expensive in pentagon history. the trouble is that it's already years behind schedule because of technical problems and the price tag keeps going up. >> my department is committed to the development of the f-35. it's absolutely critical, absolutely critical that we get it right. >> reporter: now comes news of even more problems. the f-35s which are being tested at three bases are being grounded, because one jet developed a crack in its engine blade. critics say that the planes are actually relics desip designed fight the last year's cold war instead of this century's

warfare where drones man the front lines. and of course, the timing could not be more sensitive for the plane's builder lockheed martin and the federal government. with washington talking about trimming the federal spending, that $400 million price tag might be a new target. >> will be indeed. thank you, barbara, for that. parts of the northeast could get up to 18 inches of snow. it seems that it is going to keep coming. people in 20 states are shivering and shoveling. lisa sylvester is showing us some of the places snowed under. >> reporter: this guy knows what to do with all of the snow. duke from kansas city, missouri. the winter storm brought a mix of laughs and giggles and headaches and worry as it marched across the heartland. in chicago, multiple crashes on the road. here's one, and another, and another. and take a listen for a moment to this wind from north dakota.

the weather system dumped 14 inches of snow in wichita, kansas, the second highest total ever. missouri found a foot of snow, and tennessee 18 inches. the driver of this bus in kansas city thought he could make this turn, but oh, look what happens here. in indiana, the problem was not snow, but ice. >> it is really slippery out here, and really trying to be hard to maneuver and drive. if you don't have to be out here, i recommend, don't come out here. >> reporter: getting around the streets was not the only problem. this plane in wichita got stuck after the pilot made a wrong turn on unplowed taxiway. and in cleveland, this united jet skidded off of the runway. everyone on board was okay. the fierce storm brought lots of

shoveling and -- >> i love it. >> reporter: more sledding. but the storm also left behind a little bit of nature's a artwork from the is a for the ran desert in tucson, this is called ice on cactus. lisa sylvester, cnn. >> i know what you are going to say, you grew up in buffalo. it snows there. >> and you grew up in indiana, and 20 states snowed in. >> and it still snows. >> i know, but it something that ve to talk about. >> and the world sets its eyes on mars and up next the ambitious plan. and the buzz and the politics and the prediction, and we are talking about the oscars with the top film critics. please stand by. fight back fast with tums. calcium-rich tums starts working so fast you'll forget you had heartburn. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums you'll forget you had heartburn. music: "make someone happy" music: "make someone happy" ♪it's so important to make someone happy.♪ it's so important to make meone happy.♪ ♪make just one someone happy

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while nasa is downsizing, other people are dreaming big about future space missions. one is the world's first space tourist and he wants to send a mission to mars before the end of the decade. cnn's john zarrella has more on the proposal. >> wolf, dennis tito has been involved in aerospace for most of his life and in fact, he was a tourist on the e international space station and now he is involved in what could be one of the greatest adventures that humans have ever undertaken. mars. we should have been there already, and just ask the head of the mars society who decades ago worked on concepts for human missions. >> if the apollo program had not been orphaned and abandoned the first children born orn mars would be entering high school about now. >> and just ask the last man to walk on the moon. >> we are going to be on our way to mars by the turn of the century, and i said that in

1973, and gave me over 27 years to be proven wrong. i want live to see humans on mars. i thought it would. >> reporter: but there is a chance a long shot that cernan will at least see the humans fly by the red pilot. millionaire dennis tito is leading a privately-funded mission to mars called "mission for america" and it wouldlift off in 2018, fife years from now, when mars would be in spitting distance of earth, and as close as it ever gets. roughly 36 million miles, and tito is no stranger to space flight. he was a nasa engineer, and in 2001, he became the first space tourist, flying on a russian rocket to the international space station. >> it goes well beyond anything that i would vehave ever dreame >> full plans will be unveiled in washington next week. while tito has not said it is a human mission, but it seems

clear. some of the principle players involved are experts in space medicine and life support. the mission would be what is called a quote, in fact we return in 105 days. and sources close to the mars' mission tell cn, this is a quote, very simple fly around mars. talk about an understatement. what we don't know is who is going and how many and how much it will cost or how they will get there, and what rocket and spacecraft, and sources tell us, quote, it is an open field with the wide range of solutions. there are many millionaires and billionaires out there talking about minings a stro s asteroide hotels, because that is down the moon. pulling off a mars mission in five years, well, that is shooting for the moon. even if they are past the technical issues, the crew is

going to face psychological issues from 500 days in spaces as well as radiation exposure, and next week in washington, d.c., we will find out from tito and those involved in the project with him, how they plan to pull it off. i won't be easy. wolf? >> and john zarrella reporting, and he does know a lot about this. >> he does know a lot about it, and we will continue the watch. the drama, can you feel it! it is building. who is going to win oscar gold. coming up, we will get the buzz from the top film critic. and that is pretty interesting to the guy next to me. >> yes, the oscars, i would like to win one. my individual health profile. not random statistics. they even reward me for addressing my health risks. so i'm doing fine... but she's still going to give me a heart attack. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans.

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so the academy awards, and i know what you are doing this weekend. >> i love the academy awards. >> and the big names and has everybody wondering who is in, who is out, and who is winning. >> and winning is good. >> winning is good. david edlestein new york film critic with new york magazine, and cbs sunday morning coming to join us. >> it is great to talk about the oscars that don't have anything the do with tragic killings. >> well, that is one thing i want to talk to you about, david, from "argo" to "lincol" " to zero dark 30" it seems that hollywood is getting ideas from washington, and why do you suppose that was? >> well, it was an exciting year politically and there are a lot of, you know, we are very interested now in the machinations of power and what happens behind the scene. there is so much that we don't know, and you know what, i'm not just talking about the movies,

themselves, and not talking about "argo" and ulf of the legislative machiavellian maneuvers and "lincoln" and the cia top secret black sites in "zero dark 30" but the oscar campaigning is the campaigning and the politics that i would like to be a fly on the wall for. >> david, talk to me to some of the movies here, because always big themes. washington is one theme we are s seeing in the nominations this year, and what are some of the other big themes that you are seeing in the nominations? >> well, everybody was very excited for les miserables to come out, because a gigantic and ginormous three-hour musical and maybe it would bring back the broadway musical as viable in r entertainment. ♪ i dreamed a dream in time gone by ♪ >> except for anne hath away, it

has died in terms of the oscar prospe prospects. "django" threw a lot of people. it was a great word of mouth populist hit. >> what's your name? >> django. the d is silent. >> we love to see racists getting riddled with bullets and then all of the sudden the academy said we will nominate it, but it is not going the win anything. and the big surprise was ben affleck getting snubbed, but paradoxically, "argo" will probably win as a sympathy vote for ben affleck not getting the nomination. so his loss is going to be the movie's gain. >> yes, he was snubbed, and he was not nominated for the best direct director, but the film was nominated for best film, and "argo" and are you predicting that "argo" will win as the best film of the year? >> that is what i hear. oddly enough, that is what i

hear. even though it cannot win for best director, it will win i hear. how do i know? do i know anybody in the academy? no, it is osmosis, and you read the columnists who are spun by publicists and just like war rooms because they have oscar consultants working around the clock and spinning people, and the word now is "argo." early favorite "zero dark 30" and the torture thing blew it out of the water and if anything, we proved that it does not work because kathryn bigelow did not get a oscar nomination. and "lincoln" everybody liked it, and it seems that there is a area of enthusiasm for it out there, but i don't know why, because it is great. and steven spielberg has brought in bill clinton to bring in a word to it, and talk about how true to life politically it s. so who knows, who knows what

kind of flesh clinton press sort so to speak. >> well, david, i want to ask you about another snub, best supporting actor category, and performance they would say is the performance of the year got nada, zippo, and look at this clip. >> in part of london. no one has yet claimed responsibility for what sources are calling a cyber terrorist assault on the british secret service. early reports from the scene indicate at least six dead, many more injured, with victims being evacuated to local hospitals within minutes of the explosion. >> david, you just saw the performance. wolf blitzer. outrage! i cannot believe this. there is a write-in campaign? >> there really ought to be a special award. >> it was a critical moment in that film too, "skyfall," a film that grossed over $1 billion at the box office. i had a major contributing little role over there, didn't i? >> agree, and i think you see

daniel craig's expression when he hears that that was off you. >> exactly. >> that was off you. it was because of your contradiction. this is a role -- daniel craig, pretty great. not a performance that gets nomination. his wife, rachel weiss, dave a great performance, "deep blue sea." the oscars are not about artistic merit, they're about politics. >> clearly. >> we're excited anyway. >> i want you to know, and you're a film critic, this is a relevant when i played wolf blitzer in "skyfall," this is a role i've been rathering my whole life for, really getting into that character. you see it up on the big screen. >> sunday's going to be a night of tears for wolf blitzer. >> i think you've established your personae in movies. i think the sky is the limit. >> thank you. >> all right, we'll see how it all pans out. >> i'm coming back next year. >> you can do it. hollywood loves a comeback story. david ed dell stein, great to see you. >> loved "skyfall." should have been nominated for

best picture of the year but it wasn't. celebrate hollywood's biggest night with cnn's piers morgan covering the red carpet. catch the stars, the fashions, the oscar frenzy on hollywood's biggest night, the road to gold, sunday night 6:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. we'll watch. >> i'm definitely watching now. it was a picture that went viral before that term even existed in its current context. we remember the famous picture dubbed the rescuing hug. we'll speak with the girls, the girls now 17 years after their famous moment. it's chevy truck month! silverado was also recognized for the lowest cost of ownership. hey, what are you gonna do with it? end table. oh. [ male announcer ] it's chevy truck month. now get 0% financing for 60 months, plus trade up to get $1,750 total allowance on a silverado all-star edition.

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liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? then you're going to love this. right now they're only $14.95! wow-a grt deal just got a whole lot better. hurry. $14.95 won't last. we have a really remarkable story about premature twins who helped change modern medicine. >> it all began with a hug. now 17 years later, those tiny, tiny babies are all grown up. here's cnn's lisa sylvester. >> reporter: something very special happened inside the neonatal intensive care unit at this hospital in worcester, massachusetts. october 17th, 1995, twin girls were born here. 12 weeks premature.

>> when you see little girls with their dolls, one of the tiny doll, imagine that maybe just a little bit smaller. >> reporter: each weighing only about two pounds. this is the twins' father, paul jackson. >> the nurses in the nicu, they're very honest. they say it. they told me up front that, things look pretty good now but to be honest with you, that the next 48, 72 hours, they said, things can turn very quickly. >> reporter: and turn it did. when they were only 3 weeks old, one of the twins was struggling to breathe. her heart rate was soaring. her oxygen level dropping quickly. she was turning blue. >> not only was she having spells but they were severe. >> reporter: a nurse had the novel idea of taking the stronger twin and putting her in the same incubator as her sister, a procedure that at the time had never been done before in the u.s. >> it was one of those things that was -- it happened very

quickly. they couldn't move that much. a little bit of a squirm and the arm just went up. >> reporter: the healthier sister, kyree jackson, put her arm around her sister brielle. her breeting and vital signs instantly stabilized. the image captured by a newspaper photographer who happened to be at the hospital. the picture dubbed "the rescuing hug" seen in newspapers around the world. in "life" and "reader's digest," highlighting the amazing power of human touch. that was 17 years ago. girls now all grown up. >> the one on the bottom there is when the girls went to i believe york beach in maine. in one way it seems like it's taken a long time. sometimes it seems like just a couple of days ago. >> you know what you're doing, right? >> that's right. >> reporter: driving. >> before leaping out of his bed or chair and run for cover -- >> reporter: taking honors classes. juniors in high school.

closer than ever. and in sync. >> sometimes we speak at the same time, or one person's thinking like, oh, are you thinking of a song? we're like, yeah. >> same exact part. >> of the same exact song. >> reporter: of their early fame? >> sometimes we'll google it, like, oh, god. >> reporter: like typical teams they roll their it's at the attention received. it was a moment that wasn't just sweet, it was historic. it showed the medical profession the profound impact a simple touch can have. skin to skin contact. what's known as cane goo roo care. even for very young babies in nicu. >> a lot of those things we just weren't doing. we thought kids were too fragile, that you wouldn't be able to do these things. now we do it not only with babies, 28-weekers, we do it with 23, 24, 25-weekers, even when connected on the ventilator, the breathing machine. >> reporter: the twins are now

looking at colleges. they may choose to go on to separate universities. but that twin bond, that will always be there. >> if the one's sad, the other gives the hug. >> she's kind of my output as well as input, as far as giving me hugs, giving me support. >> reporter: an endless hug that began here. >> and it's one of those stories that makes -- brings tears to my eyes. i have the magazine, "life" magazine. this was the actual magazine. >> amazing there was a photographer there at that moment. >> it's one of those heartwarming stories. it emphasizes that this is something a lot of parents can relate to, how important it is to hold your child, to have that touch, whether you have a newborn, an older child. one thing doctors will say is these twins, they were being closely monitored at the time, they had oxygen, so forth. so it's one of those things, you don't want to try this necessarily at home in terms of putting two babies together because of the risk of